Range Coding with Availability Bits for Low-Overhead Compression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing range coding methods are inefficient when the probabilities of symbols are not known beforehand, leading to significant data overhead and reduced compression efficiency, especially when encoding smaller amounts of data.
Innovation Solution
The proposed method includes additional information in the encoded data indicating whether frequency, probability, or range values need to be included for specific symbols, allowing for selective inclusion based on their occurrence, and uses availability bits to optimize the delivery of these values, enabling more efficient range coding even for smaller data sets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If coding table data including frequency, probability or range values is included in the encoded output data, then the compression efficiency is improved, but the data overhead increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by selectively including frequency, probability or range values only for those symbols that actually appear in the encoded data, rather than including values for all possible symbols. This is achieved through availability bits that indicate which symbols are present, allowing the decoder to reconstruct the coding table with minimal overhead - only the necessary portion of information is transmitted.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts and transmits only the essential information needed for decoding by removing redundant frequency/probability values. By using availability bits to identify which symbols are present, the system extracts only the relevant coding table data required for accurate decoding, eliminating unnecessary data transmission.
2Productivity
If accurate frequency, probability or range values are sent to improve range coding compression, then the compression efficiency is improved, but more data size is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing accurate frequency, probability or range values only for the specific symbols that appear in the data, rather than uniformly for all possible symbols. The availability bits enable the decoder to allocate precision resources locally to only those symbols that are actually present, optimizing compression efficiency without proportionally increasing overall data size.
3Productivity
If context information is used to modify probabilities in coding table data, then the coding efficiency is improved, but the method is only efficient for certain types of data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent achieves universality by creating a coding system that works effectively across different data types through the availability bit mechanism. The same framework of selectively including frequency/probability values based on symbol presence can be applied universally to various data types including images, audio, text, and other symbolic data, making the method adaptable rather than data-type-specific.
Data Source
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AI summary
An encoder (20) for encoding data (D1, 10) to generate corresponding encoded data (E2, 30) is provided, wherein the encoded data (E2, 30) includes information indicative of a frequency, probability or range of one or more symbols to be represented in the encoded data (E2, 30). The encoder (20) is operable to include in the encoded data (E2, 30) additional information indicative of whether or not information indicative of a frequency, probability or range for at least one symbol amongst the one or more symbols is included in the encoded data (E2, 30). The encoder (20) is operable to include in the encoded data (D3, 30) the additional information of whether or not information indicative of a frequency, probability or range for at least one symbol amongst the one or more symbols is included in the encoded data (E2, 30) expressed as single availability bit information. Beneficially, the encoder (20) is operable to represent inclusion of information indicative of the frequency, probability or range information in the encoded data (E2, 30) by use of a single availability bit value " 7", and non-inclusion of information indicative of the frequency, probability or range information in the encoded data (E2, 30) by use of a single availability bit value "0".